Editorial: State of Jefferson? It would be rugged, beautiful, very poor

The secessionists who see a California controlled by distant urban interests out of touch with the north state’s values and lifestyle never really stop pining to break off and form the state of Jefferson — a deeply unlikely prospect but not just an April Fool’s gag.

But what would this state actually look like? Idaho. With beaches.

The 19 California and Oregon counties that encompass the commonly touted “modern version” of Jefferson (a broader expanse than the original 1941 scheme) have, altogether, a population of 1.42 million people — just smaller than Idaho.

Like Idaho, it would be mountainous, ruggedly beautiful, sparsely populated and, sad to say, poor.

Our new state would have a per-capita annual income of about $22,875, based on data from the Census’ 2006-10 American Community Survey. That’s more than 20 percent less than today’s California as a whole and 12.5 percent less than Oregon. In fact, Jefferson would be poorer than almost every other state in the union — just behind New Mexico and ahead of, yes, Idaho. (Our taxes flow south? The numbers suggest this river runs in the other direction.)

As for politics, despite the inclusion of the very liberal Redwood Coast and Butte County, which isn’t quite as conservative as the rest of the north state, Jefferson would be safe Republican territory. In the 2012 election, Mitt Romney would have beaten Barack Obama by about 12 percentage points to collect our electoral votes — comparable to Montana, but not nearly as conservative as, say, Utah or Wyoming. Or deep-red Idaho, where Romney led Obama by 30 points.

Despite all that open space, Jefferson wouldn’t be that big of a state, in the scheme of things. At 55,000 square miles, it would be smaller than almost all of the Western states, just a hair smaller than Wisconsin and a bit larger than Arkansas. Of course, a huge share of it would be owned by the federal government. The largest city would be Redding — barely — with Chico and Medford close rivals.

Aside from the economy, that sounds like a nice place to live. The beautiful part is that by any name, we already get to call it home.